I read something by someone from the 1940’s who said (paraphrased) that ‘the arrogance of every generation is to assume that they will not be surpassed in any way by subsequent generations.’
I hear what you are saying, but I have been waiting for my hover car for over 50 years now.
I knew Charlie Bolden when he was an astronaut, before he became the head of the Astronaut Office, before he was the NASA Adninistrator and a politician, which comes with the title unfortunately. He was a very likeable person, as were most astronauts. Likeability is part of the job description.
Being an astronaut is a dream job. But its also essentially a political appointment. One gets to train and fly in space, more than once if you are lucky. But its definitely also a PR job and you have to be good at people and helping sell the program. Unfortunately the higher up on the chain you are, the closer you are to the politicians you really work for.
I dont know how Charlie Bolden felt about his muslim outreach assignment. However he felt about it, it was directed from the Obama White House.
Maybe you know this or maybe not: He flew more than 100 sorties into North and South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in the A-6A Intruder while assigned to VMA(AW)-533 at Royal Thai Air Base Nam Phong, Thailand, from June 1972 to June 1973.
So there might be more to the man than your quote above.